A New Historicist Study Of Norman Mailer's The Armies Of The Night

Norman Mailer(1923—2007)is one of the most important post-modernist writers in the history of American literature.His works mainly focus on the social and political situation of America since 1945,and for this reason he is hailed as the spokesman of American history and society.The Armies of the Night is firstly published in 1968 and is Mailer's one of the most important nonfictional works.Centering on the Great March in Washington in 1967,the book explores the social and political problems facing the contemporary American society.Yet compared with his other works that have attracted much attention from academic circles,attention paid to the book is much less.The thesis will analyze the book from the perspective of New Historicism.The thesis holds that the book fully demonstrates Mailer's penetrating reflections upon American political and social situation and his New Historicist thoughts.Mailer insists that the history of the Vietnam War and the Great March constructed by the American government and the mass media together is a representation of the discourse of the dominant class and reflects the ideology and interests of the class and therefore is by no means the whole historical reality.In The Armies of the Night,Mailer applies the techniques of fictional novel into the record of historical events rather than adopts the traditional model of journalistic writing,consequently deconstructing and subverting the official history writing and constructing a more authentic one.However,according to New Historicism,albeit power attempts to control discourses and discourses attempt to subvert power,the subversion of discourses is still controlled and affected by power;power allows its opposite discourse to subvert itself and even produces various discourses so that the ubiquity of itself can be protruding.Doubtless,Mailer's deconstruction of the official history is a part of the power relationship and his criticism of the social problem and his concerns for the political situation of America result from his firm maintenance of the core values of the dominant ideology.Meanwhile,in this book,through the innovative description and record of the Great March,Mailer endeavors to cross the boundaries of ideologies,countries and nations and shows his concerns for the peace of the whole human society.The whole thesis is divided into six chapters:Chapter One introduces Mailer's life,his literary career,and the main plot of The Armies of the Night and explains the significances of the study;Chapter Two offers the theory of New Historicism and the rationale of the study;Chapter Three discussed the historicity of Mailer's text and points out that his text not only mirrors the social and cultural situation of his time,but also participates in the construction of the ideological and cultural history of his time,and thus constituting an interactive relationship with history;Chapter Four analyzes "the textuality of history" in Mailer's text and explores the strategies Mailer employs when he deconstructs and subverts the official history and constructs his own version of history:namely,metafiction and intertextuality;Chapter Five analyzes the power relationship reflected in Mailer's book and explores how power produces and contains the opponent subversive forces;Chapter Six concludes the thesis and points out that:First,the book enables readers to have a better understanding of the relationship between history,fiction and fictionalized history;Second,Mailer's reflections upon and criticism of the political and social problems and his efforts to cross the boundaries of ideologies,countries and nations make him a star in the American literature.